The Thursday and Friday of the Games are where things come to a climax. The group stages, pools and heats are done and only the strongest are left standing. The first signs of partying among the competitors too. I’m always impressed with the self-restraint of the young sports people away from home while there is still work to be done.

• The Falkland Islanders were still going strong – apart from the footballers who, with a small squad, were running out of legs with four matches in five days. Still they were happy with their 12th place finish after a 1-2 defeat to the Western Isles.

• A third medal – a bronze – was belatedly awarded to the Falkland shooters, though it won’t count in the final table. The Falklands therefore leave with three medals, which is three more than they expected.
  

  The Falklands shooters are finally awarded their medal.

• The most popular gold medal on the final day was won by Jersey’s women footballers who beat Aland 1-0 to great excitement at Springfield. The girls have progressed beyond recognition in recent times.
  

  The winners – pic from JEP

• The decision of the organisers to bring beach volleyball into the heart of town was a spectacular success with big crowds gathering at lunchtimes and evenings. The town criteriums for cycling and mountain biking (at People’s Park) were also well-supported and full of incident. Early in the week the triathlon was brilliantly presented and set the tone for the week.

• Badminton and swimming – exciting for all involved but hampered by limited spectator facilities, especially when the home island was involved. Table tennis was one of the sports I didn’t get to but was highly enjoyable by all accounts.

• Tennis, basketball, volleyball, golf, the sailing events. All went off successfully but in a lower key. The athletics seemed to be very well presented and popular. Paul Ingouville provided expert commentary which made up in part for a lack of spectator information.

• All the visitors enjoyed the facilities and warm welcome at the various shooting ranges – Crabbé, Lecq and the indoor ranges at St John and Maillard’s. A bit difficult for the uninformed spectator to follow at times but I could watch the clay pigeon shooting all day. Targets being shot out of the sky miraculously with the Paternoster rocks and other Channel Islands as a magical backdrop.

• For me the odd one out was archery. Many came to watch, including school parties, and left disappointed very quickly. Distant targets, distant shooters, no information or anything to watch. Why no information screens, target close-ups, anything at all to offer spectators? Jersey archery has a poster girl in the talented and charismatic Lucy O’Sullivan but otherwise seems content to keep its doors firmly shut. An opportunity thrown away.

• And finally, us Games Makers in our purple became the common denominator around the Island all week – 400 and more. A bit of overkill maybe but it worked. And I see that there are a group already planning to travel to Gotland as volunteers in two years’ time 🙂

• So it’s a wrap. The last competitors are on their way home. It’s been an awesome week and a spectacular sporting and organisational success. The logistics of it all have been unbelievable. Back to work for a rest.

You can find the final medals table and all the results here

What a whirlwind it’s been. It was my full intention to do a daily blog but there has been barely enough time to eat and sleep. It’s the penultimate day of competition and only now do I get an hour or two to catch up.

The Games have consumed the Island. The highways and byways are full of visiting competitors, officials and Games Makers, the latter including me. The sports venues are buzzing from morning often until late in the evening.

My role is attaché to the Falkland Islands who have brought a party of about 70 competitors, family and supporters. They are a terrific, friendly bunch of guys and girls.

• First of all, here is a short video of the opening ceremony to give you a flavour of it all. The teams marched in behind their flags in alphabetical order (though with Bermuda first and Jersey last). I’m there for a second or two just behind the Falklands flag 🙂

https://video.silverstream.tv/content/video/558f1169b3579.mp4

• The Falklands footballers have done their homeland proud. With only a 3,000 population they are no match for the bigger boys. But their personal cup final came on Day 1 against fellow minnows Hitra and they came back from 0-1 for a battling 2-1 victory. There followed 0-3 and 0-5 defeats against Isle of Wight and Shetland but, on both occasions, got the locals firmly on their side with not only their spirit but in the way they played with a smile on their faces. A nice change from the cynicism we see too often.

  

  Poor marking at the back post, 1-0 to Hitra

  

  1-1!

  

  The winner

  
  

• On a warm Day 1 morning Tim Drew the Falklands representative finished in 8th place in the Half-Marathon. He runs again tomorrow (Fri) in the 10,000 metres. The two girls came 19th and 23rd.
  

  Women’s Half Marathon under way

• The badminton squad arrived fresh from a training camp in the Netherlands – it is difficult for them with no opposition outside their homeland to help raise standards. Victories are proving elusive but they have battled away and have thoroughly enjoyed the raucous atmosphere up at the New Gilson Hall where all five courts have been in simultaneous use.
  

  Mixed doubles at the Gilson

• The swimmers at Les Quennevais may not have threatened the podium but there have been a handful of PBs and national records. You cannot ask more of an athlete than doing just that.
  

  Without a ticket to the pool!

• Medal success! It’s a different world at the various shooting ranges and it all remains a mystery to me. However they are packed all day with different events, disciplines, distances and the Falklands picked up a very rare medal – a silver – in something called the Police Pistol 1 team event. A proud moment.
  

  Proud moment, Falklands lads on the left

• And again! This time in the archery. And it was so nearly gold as Mark Lewis was just edged into second place by the Jersey man in the recurve head-to-head.

• Away from the competition we worked on international relations with a visit to St Clement’s School yesterday (Wed). Each of Jersey’s primary schools have been twinned with a visiting island and it was lovely for a couple of the Falklands party to go along and meet all the children, answer questions etc.

• Elsewhere I’m happy to report that the Jersey public have embraced the Games. There have been large crowds at many of the events, especially when Jersey have been involved. At the athletics last night there was the biggest crowd I’ve seen maybe since the track was opened in the 1980s. Jersey are dominating the medals table but no one is taking too much notice as it signifies little. Of course it matters hugely to the athletes involved but the medal haul itself is meaningless other than as a measure of available resource.

• So, deep breath and back into the fray. A first visit to the golf this afternoon, nip up to catch the archery medal ceremony then off to watch the Falklands football lads battle the Western Isles in the 11th/12th place play-off.

The official Games website is here with all the results here.

Well it’s comparable in size to the Winter Olympics. The NatWest Island Games kick off in Jersey in two weeks’ time.  3,000 competitors from 20 islands taking part in 14 sports. It’s the 16^th edition of the Games which started in 1985 in the Isle of Man.

Britain generally ‘does’ mass organised events very well and Jersey certainly keeps up the high standards. Much depends on the extraordinary volunteer ethos in this part of the world. For the last two years the activity behind the scenes has been gathering pace with just two paid full-timers together with volunteer part-timers but with the essential backing of the Jersey States upon which provision of infrastructure and facilities depend.

Latterly we, the Games Makers, have been recruited and trained up. The Head GM Cliff Chipperfield was a GM at the London Olympics and he was enthused to organise the Jersey effort along the same lines. There are something like 400 of us and we had our final get together today, all decked out in our garish purple gear.

Waitrose Games Makers

I’m happy to have landed the job as attaché to the team from the Falkland Islands who are bringing around 80 competitors, officials and supporters. (I did likewise with the small Iceland team in 1997, when the Games were last held here, after which that island never competed in the Games again!)

It will be huge and will dominate Island life for over a week. As usual, despite the razzmatazz, there will be those residents who will have only a vague idea that something is happening. They’ll have a shock if they set out for work at the usual time in the morning as thousands of athletes travel around to their venues.

It all kicks off with the Opening Ceremony on 27^th June and I’ll be posting up plenty of words and images captured during the event.

Here’s the link to the official website.